


Start Praying

by Vacate



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Gen, No Romance, Protective Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Protective Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:13:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28990524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vacate/pseuds/Vacate
Summary: What happens when Ranboo doesn't show up to his meeting with Technoblade?
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 353
Collections: Completed stories I've read





	Start Praying

“Phil, have you seen Ranboo around?” 

Techno was not worried at all, definitely not for a kid he barely knew. Sure, the kid was actually pretty cool, and his enderman desire to give Phil and him gifts constantly matched almost perfectly with his own, but it wasn’t like that would be enough for Techno to care. It was Ranboo’s crown that he was missing. Yes, definitely the golden crown that looked so similar to his own and made his piglin side go all warm and the voices go all nice. The fact that the crown was attached to a gangly kid that was too kind for his own good was just part of the fine print that Techno quickly skipped over in his mind.

Phil looked up from where he was sorting their chests and frowned. 

“Sorry, mate. I haven’t seen the kid. Is something wrong?” If something was up with the shy boy, Phil wanted to know, he was the one that had invited him to live with them after all. It was only natural to want Ranboo to be comfortable. Safe with them compared to the cruelty of L’Manberg. 

“He told me that he’d come over today to show us a new map he’d found, but he hasn’t shown up yet.” Techno unconsciously grinded his teeth.

“Perhaps he forgot? His memory isn’t the best.” Phil knew that it was unlikely. Ranboo, bless his forgetful soul, was very particular about writing down promises. Phil had once spontaneously decided to invite him to work on the nether wart farm and Ranboo had almost had a panic attack because he’d believed that he’d forgotten about a promise to help. 

Techno was also not convinced. “I think we should look for him. I’ve got a bad feeling about this. The voices have begun to shout his name, but as usual they aren’t much help.” 

Techno’s voices functioned slightly different from those of his full-blooded cousins. The voices allowed him to sometimes know things about people that he regarded as part of his herd, but unlike his relations, he was unable to find out exactly what it was that was making the voices act up. For him it was usually a soft background mumble, an ever-present record of Phil that was on loop, only to burst out in great fear when any baby zombie was spotted nearby.

“I think we should check his house first.” Phil said. At Techno’s confession of voice activity, Phil had quickly stood up and grabbed his sword. 

Techno and Phil both became frustrated at the mention of the pathetic shack that Ranboo had called his house. Its roof was barely able to stand up against a single night’s worth of snow and every morning they had to watch as Ranboo carefully shovelled the snow off. One time, the soft-spoken hybrid had not been so careful and Phil had choked on his coffee when he witnessed him getting buried under the weight of the packed snow. Before he’d been able to even stand up, Techno had already ran outside. It was then that they’d found out snow and endermen mixed only marginally better than rain and endermen, snow was quick to melt on the skin. It took every single bit of mental strength that Phil possessed that day to allow the kid to return to the shack after they’d treated the many water burns on his skin. He had no right to demand him to stay at their house after all. When the kid left, Techno had gone upstairs and Phil could hear him growling through the walls.

Techno and Phil promptly left their cabin. While it was still daytime, the everlasting grey sky hid the sun away. Ranboo lived relatively nearby, so it wasn’t long until Techno saw the first hole.

It was nothing like a creeper explosion. The circumference of the hole was much too big and the damage surrounding the area much too clean. 

“What the hell is this, Phil?” Techno asked the other man.

Phil did not answer, his eyes had widened at something he had spotted in the distance and he had immediately taken off on a sprint towards Ranboo’s shack, or rather what was left of it.

“Ranboo! Ranboo are you here?” Phil shouted. No answer came from the hole that had engulfed the boy’s house. It was like someone had dug out an entirely new cave where the kid’s shack was supposed to be. A layer of snow had already begun to cover the ground. Phil was standing at the edge of the hole, in shock. 

Technoblade had at this point caught up with his friend and with a swift movement jumped inside, his landing softened with a small crunch. Techno kicked away some of the snow and uncovered part of the Netherrack that had made up Ranboo’s comfort room. The voices called for blood.

“Phil, can you see anything from up there?” the hybrid shouted. Phil did his best to calm down, locking his emotions away in a way he hadn’t needed to do since he had killed Wilbur. He carefully observed the bumps in the snow, determining what was probably part of the wreckage and what could possibly be Ranboo. Then he spotted the contrasting end of a black tail in the snow.

“I see him! He’s there!” Phil pointed in the direction of the tail as he hurriedly jumped down.

The two of them used their hands to pull the snow away from Ranboo’s body. As they uncovered the younger boy their concern grew. His skin was terribly swollen. Techno grabbed the enderman hybrid and held him close.

“He’s as cold as ice, Phil. I can’t find a pulse.” Phil, only by herculean mental effort, managed to cast away the image of a dead Ranboo. He recalled any and all positive information that he knew of.

“Bring him inside. We see plenty of endermen around this area, I think their heartbeat slows down to accommodate long periods of cold.”

Techno hoisted the limp body up with one arm and cradled the kid’s head with his chin. With his other hand he threw his cape over the boy so that he was protected from the cold. They quickly made their way back to their house.

Phil took the back entrance to their storage to check if they had any potion stored that they could use or if he had to brew new ones. Techno went through the front door and straight up the ladders to his room. He laid Ranboo down on his bed.

The voices, who had not stopped demanding bloody and gory revenge on whomever had done this to the kid, became louder and louder. They echoed in his skull and looking down at the sad sight on the bed, Techno didn’t have the strength left to reason with them, to reason with himself. The people who did this would not have the pleasure of a quick death. Techno’s entire body shook and he grabbed his axe without a thought, his mind only processing the many ways he knew to kill. It was at this moment that Phil climbed up the ladder.

Techno whirled around and growled menacingly at the intruder. He did not see Phil, only another person that could potentially harm Ranboo. 

“Mate, I’ve got potions and a golden apple.” Phil tried to reason with the furious piglin hybrid, but Techno was too far gone for reason.

“Techno, move aside. He needs help!” He made a step forwards and was rewarded with the raising of an axe. It made Phil angry, why couldn’t Techno understand that without help, Ranboo could die? He looked into Techno’s eyes, but didn’t see his friend in the reflection, just an animal. If this was how it was going to be, then so be it. He wasn’t going to let Ranboo die. He was certain that Techno would forgive him once he regained control. 

Phil pulled out his own axe and took a stance. The two silently faced each other, looking intently for any form of flaw they could exploit.

“Technoblade? Philza?” A soft voice called out, Ranboo.

The interruption was unexpected and the immediate silencing of the voices in his head left Techno disoriented enough for Phil to take advantage and take the axe from him and knock him aside.

“Ranboo! Kid, wait don’t move.” Phil took one of the rare instant health potions they owned and put it against Ranboo’s mouth. “Please drink this.” Phil saw the kid’s entire body glow, the fiery blaze powder magic casting the cold out of his bones. 

Phil took a peek at Techno and saw, to his relief, that the man had regained control. Techno looked back and nodded his head as a way to apologise, he stood back up and moved to stand next to Phil. Phil didn’t take it personal. On the contrary, the fact that Techno’s first instinct was to protect the kid made him happy. It would make things much easier for Ranboo to have someone like Techno on his side. 

Phil shifted his attention back to Ranboo and was met by confused eyes. “Philza, Technoblade, what happened? Why does everything hurt?” Their hearts ached at the pain they could hear behind the questions.

“We found you in a crater under some snow kid, we were hoping that you could tell us some more.” Techno said. “You’re really sure you don’t remember anything? The blast took out your entire shack.”

“I-I’m sorry about your property value, Technoblade. I don’t remember what happened, but if it was my fault I’ll-” Ranboo started to ramble, but Techno cut him off.

“If I really cared about the property value, I wouldn’t have let you build there in the first place. What concerns me, us, is that you got hurt and we don’t know how or why.”

“Sorry, I really don’t know. If only I remembered.” Ranboo started curling in on himself, but was stopped by two steady arms that curled around him.

“Ranboo, we aren’t upset with you, we are upset for you. I promised that you’d be safe here with us and yet this happened. It should be you that’s angry with us.” Phil definitely was angry with himself. How could he have let this happen?

“Since we don’t know what happened, or who did this, it would be best that you stayed with us for the time being.” Techno said.

“I’m sorry, I don’t want to intrude-” Ranboo started.

“You’re not. I am telling you to stay.” And to really get his point across, Techno raised his hands and slowly ruffled Ranboo’s hair.

“We’ll take care of you here and make sure that nothing of the sort will happen again.” Phil added.

“Thank you guys.” Ranboo said sincerely. It was all he still seemed to have strength for, as his eyes closed right after. The instant health potion would only kickstart the recovery, but it would take a while for the water burns to heal and for the kid to regain all his strength. With a last look at Ranboo, Phil and Techno went downstairs. They had much to discuss.

“What do you think made those holes? The kid’s entire house got destroyed, but he barely has any wounds besides the water burns as far as we can see.” Techno questioned out loud while pacing around the living room.

“I’ve seen explosions of that size only a few times before, but End Crystals would definitely have done damage to Ranboo.” Phil answered.

“Do End Crystals damage endermen?” Techno looked at Phil intently.

“Regular endermen definitely get hurt, I’m not sure to what degree Ranboo counts as a regular enderman. Still, how could anyone possibly have gotten their hands on End Crystals?”

“All you need is a Nether Star Phil. They are definitely rare, nobody is going around spawning withers for fun after all, but where are the Stars that dropped from our Withers in L’Manburg? We got some, but definitely not all of them.” 

Phil felt queasy, had their negligence caused Ranboo to get hurt? He looked at Technoblade, who had come to the same conclusion.

“Ranboo is harmless, he doesn’t have enemies that would be going this far. This was an attack on us.” Techno went on, “We’ll get them back for this. L’Manberg wasn’t a good enough lesson apparently. We have to find who did this.”

“We’ll show them that playing stupid games wins them stupid prizes.” Techno looked at Phil, who he’d never seen this furious. 

The Syndicate would undoubtedly be a bloody endeavour, but Philza and Techno saw it as a must to fan the flames of anarchy in Essempi as soon as possible. It had been the subject of several of their previous discussions. It used to be a long term plan, other events taking much more priority, but after the proverbial third strike there was no more hesitation on their mind. 

Strike one was the devastation that L’Manberg’s politics had brought to Phil’s family. He’d lost Wilbur to war and Tommy to greed. Ghostbur was sometimes around, but Phil couldn’t stand to see the husk of his dead son parading around as if it had any right to be associated with the vibrant young boy he once knew.

Strike two was almost impossibly more complex, betrayal. All everyone but Phil did was use Techno as a weapon. To them, he was The Blade. They abused his trust, his deeply-rooted piglin desire to be part of a group and to care for others, again and again, and again. After Tommy’s latest betrayal he was hugged silently by Phil, his only friend, a part of them both felt broken beyond repair.

Strike three is what truly changed all of their plans. Messing with a kid that had a heart of gold? Unforgivable. Messing with _Technoblade and Philza Minecraft’s_ kid with a heart of gold? Start praying.

_fin_

  
  



End file.
